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Article from ecommerze.blogspot .com

Another sms scam

After the recent SMS scam attack on Digi subscribers, now is the turn for Maxis subscribers to experience the similar SMS scam.Subscribers will be informed through SMSes that they had won some cash worth a few thousands from Maxis. In order to withdraw the money, they were required to call a foreign 15 digits phone number to provide then with the bank account number.A Maxis spokeperson beside denying their involvement, also reminded the subscribers to ignore SMSes with foreign or weird codes.

Source: TheStar, 14th July 2007.

Personal Opinion:Seems like the SMS scams is getting bolder and innovative. A lot of new tricks are being implemented to trick the subcribers to disclose some crucial financial and personal information. How could the government and telcos help to stop this scam from spreading on? May be they can consider the actions taken by SC in closing down the illegal fund investment websites - blocking all the weird or foreign codes? The government also should control the licenses for mobile services operators which are related to SMS.

source: http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/Legal

Blogger's comment

If you never gotten a piece of SMS scam you should consider yourself lucky. As reported by the Malaysia’s National ICT Security Emergency Response Center (NISER), the top 10 originating countries in the case of SCAM in Malaysia are:

>>USA - 59.09%, China - 5.56%, Korea - 4.46%, Canada -3.33%, Japan - 2.12%, Taiwan - 2.09%, UK - 1.66%, France - 1.60%, Germany -1.30%
>> Local - 3.15%

example of sms scam

According to Wikipedia, mobile phone scam is a form of spamming directed at the text messaging service of a mobile phone. It is described as mobile spamming, SMS scam or SpaSMS but is most frequently referred to as m-span. Most of these scam SMS are sent through the internet to your Email-to-SMS address (10-digit mobile number@carrier.com) which is virtually free of cost rather than sending it directly to your mobile number via the operator/carrier’s SMS gateway which would result in a cost to the sender.








As a mobile phone user, what action shall we take to stop unwanted SMS scam?


If you receive any unsolicited scam SMS and get billed for it, report to the Malaysian Multimedia and Communication Commission (MCMC). Of course, mobile attacks are growing worldwide, but it's hard to imagine users adopting mobile security until the problems become both widespread and unavoidable.


SMS Cpam Manager blocks the unwanted SMS messages without producing any sound or light indication. There are 6 different types of filters to block unwanted SMS. You have the freedom to choose whether to reject all incoming messages or to accept messages only from people listed in your phonebook. You can also choose to block incoming SMS messages from a defined phone number, from a defined prefix number and even messages that contain a defined phrase. With SMS Cpam Manager you can effectively filter all your incoming SMS messages. It is an effective way to stops the junk and unwanted SMS messages.



Malaysia-based mobile services operator Maxis Communications Berhad has launched a new service that enables Malaysia's largest mobile user base of 10 million customers to control, personalize and automate their short messaging services (SMS), including blocking unsolicited SMS, or Scam SMS. Even subscribing the service doesn’t mean it will totally prevent us from receiving sms spam but at least it can help to control it.

Communication through mobile devices is no longer treated as a new phenomenon. Text messaging is currently the best way to keep in touch when the environment is not conducive to talk and this the main reason why sms scam is getting more serious recently. Thus, as a mobile phone user, it is our responsibility to take corrective action to stop this unwanted phenomenon.